The South Beach Diet is a diet plan designed by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietician Marie Almon as an alternative to low-fat approaches such as the Ornish Diet and the Pritikin Diet advocated by the American Heart Association in the 1980s.

For many years most athletes, fitness models, and bodybuilders have applied the same basic fundamentals to their diet. Principles like eating often (5-6 times per day), building muscle, eating lean proteins, and aiming to eat whole unrefined carbs. Sadly many dieters have failed to take note of these techniques, often believing that calorie restriction is the only way to lose weight.

Developed by Dr.David Jenkins, a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto, the G.I. measures the speed at which foods are broken down by the body to form glucose, the body’s source of energy. High G.I. foods break down quickly and leave you looking for the next food fix. Low G.I. foods break down more slowly and leave you feeling fuller, longer.

Gluten is the protein part of wheat, rye, barley, and other related grains. Some people cannot tolerate gluten when it comes in contact with the small intestine. This condition is known as celiac disease (sometimes called non-tropical sprue or gluten sensitive enteropathy). There is also evidence that a skin disorder called dermatitis herpetiformis is associated with gluten intolerance.

“The pill offers the promise of convenience, that someone has done the job for you,” says Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle. “People who don't live well, who stuff themselves with bags of snacks, in desperation they reach out for a pill.”

How, exactly, does the body become contaminated by toxins? The contamination can occur as a result of food additives, mercury, drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Through the process of digestion, the body takes in the toxins. In addition to promoting weight loss, a detox diet can help heal migraines, stomach trouble, colds, and joint pain.

This dietary regime is strictly a cleansing diet. Weight loss will occur, but it is not to be equated with fat loss. Much of the weight that is lost will be from fluid and water retention. Indeed, the book states that at least 1/2 the weight will come back on after completing the diet. Many people incorrectly use this for fast weight loss. This is not what the diet is intended for.

A diet lacking in the mineral selenium may allow viruses to mutate and become more virulent, scientific research suggests. A human flu virus used to infect mice given a selenium free diet was found to have undergone genetic changes.